Europe Has The Most Expensive Hotspots
As the battle to build commercial hotspots continues, even as some players are dropping out, it appears that Europe has the most expensive hotspots, averaging $62 (US) per month. At that price it's amazing anyone will use them. The cheapest rates are in Asia, where they run $16 (US) per month - which is almost reasonable. In the US, it average $40 a month. As for daily prices, again, Europe was pretty damn expensive with Switzerland topping the list offering 24-hour access for the stunning price of $33 (US). Do people actually pay that? However, go north a bit to Sweden and you can get 24-hours of access for merely $3.40 (US) per day. The research also shows that the 24-hour access option is proving to be more popular than monthly deals. This, of course, makes plenty of sense, since most people using hotspots only use them occcasionally. People aren't willing to sign up with a monthly plan, when they're only going to use a hotspot two or three times a month (or less). The study also found that, while WiFi aggregation was big in the US, through companies like Boingo, in Europe companies offering WiFi want to control the entire experience. Of course, what the article leaves out is that none of these hotspots are doing a very good job attracting very many users - at least not enough to make a good business model.
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